Abstract [en]

Children and young people living in families with alcohol misuse, violence or a parents psychiatric illness are commonly regarded as a group at risk of developing social and health problems, but also at risk of failing in school. Teachers, school social workers and other relevant staff all have important roles to play in identifying pupils within this target group. However research demonstrates that this process can be prolonged and professionals fail to identify young people at risk in early stages. This presentation offers an evaluation of the project Extended In-Depth Pupil Welfare (2013 2015) funded by the Swedish Public Health Agency. The research questions are: Does availability influence willingness to seek and accept support? , and In what way does this support influence school performance? In this presentation focus is directed to findings emerging from data with children and young people (N=88) who has received interventions. Statistics on grades (grade 7-9) and school absence and interviews (N=20). Thematic analysis has been adopted and the interview data was coded and closely analyzed by identifying increasinglevels of abstraction in the material. The result indicate that the children and young people perceive they can control whether, and if so, when they want to receive support from the support team (self-referrals). This, they report, contributes to a willingness to both emotionally and cognitively engage in the preRepuls program and in the counselling provided. Also three affordances facilitating childrens and young people´sself-referrals is identified: (i) the day-to-day presence of the social workers enables investment in relationships, (ii) team members use communication technologies in domains familiar to the children, and (iii) the social workers practice is visible. A further resultis also that grades are improved, often pointing to subjects such as Swedish, Maths and English and decreased absence from school.